One of the major hallmarks of the last few years has been the establishment of the electronic game industry in a variety of forms, making available apparatus and techniques which have created new vistas in entertainment. For example, the advent of the microprocessor permitted so-called computer games to be produced in cartridge, tape or disk form for playing upon special purpose machines and even general purpose microcomputers or the like.
Games have been developed for large computer installations as well and, with refinements in graphics technique, have proved to be fascinating for young and adult alike.
In fact, experts in the field have recognized that video games may prove to be an important factor in decreasing a latent hostility between the individual and the computer, which hostility appears to have been ingrained in mankind since the development of so-called "thinking" machines.
However, to a certain extent, computer games and machines have, in spite of their versatility, made little headway in the food service field or in entertainment associated with food service.
For example, orders at food service establishments are still customarily taken by waiters or waitresses, manually inscribed upon a suitable memorandum, such as a multileaf book, manually or orally transmitted to the cook or food-preparation personnel, and ultimately delivered by hand by the waiter to the table.
Entertainment in food service establishments may be live, e.g. as in nightclubs, or may be prerecorded as in discotheques and even in establishments catering to youth and keying, for example, on video displays, old motion pictures and the like.
Personal involvement of the customer in the entertainment operation and even in the food ordering interplay is at a minimum.